Help with dedicated server performance

F1Fan07

The server (leased dedicated server at a major data centre): Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Core i3-2130 3.40 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 2 x 1TB RAID, 100 Mbps up/down.

Software: rF1 1.255c, mod V8 Factor Unleashed

Configuration: Game launched dedicated server.exe, bandwidth set to 8000 kbps up and down, otherwise default


I have a problem with this server that showed up with a large field (27 cars) and also hosting a rF2 session with about 10 cars. About 4 times during a 60 minute race most of the drivers observed data loss (manifested as cars on track not updating their position properly then suddenly snapping back into place). There is no packet loss or bandwidth problems (I've been testing that for several days), CPU usage during the race is under 10%, network usage is about 4-6 Mbps for 27 cars during a race.

What I've done so far (but not tested with a full field) is to set the Max Data Per Client to 256 kbps (from default 9999) and in Windows have switched Processor Scheduling from Background to Applications. I think that last change may be what I needed to do.

I would welcome input on tuning the system from anyone with experience in hosting on Windows Server 2008 R2
 
Sounds like too much connections at a time. I would ask my service provider how many connections can they handle/allow to use without problems (bandwith is more than enough).
 
F1Fan07:

Are you running the Server 2008 firewall? and if so, have you added the dedicated.exe to the exceptions.

Also, when you start the dedicated, and after it loads, open Task-manager, right click on the dedicated process, open the Infinity tab, and see if there is a check mark across all cores. If so remove 3 and run on one core. see what that does for connections and lag.

You need to also do the infinity for the rF2..and select only one core...

( Bad thing, each time you restart either servers, you have to manually set)

There is a way around this, IF it works and you see improvement.

Let me know and I will watch this thread for your response.

Edit: Do you have remote desktop access to the server? If so have you logged onto the desktop and run a speed test? I can't see any GSP throttling your bandwidth in this day and age, But? who knows.

Dave
 
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Thanks for your suggestions, Dave. If anyone knows how to set these things up it should be you!

Firewall is off.

Speed tests look OK. 95/95 within the same province, worst performance around NA is about 35/35 (a couple of speedtest sites were 25/5 but I'm going to assume that's isolated). Throttling shouldn't happen... that doesn't kick in until I move 5 TB in a month and this server is just used for rFactor right now.

Processor affinity was already set to one CPU. While I was getting the glitchy race session I was watching perfmon and I was only seeing one core active and that was under 10%.
 
I have more testing to do.

We're having problems on two servers with two different tracks. It could be due to the minor modifications we've made to the tracks that I didn't think would affect anything.
 
Another question to those that are hosting high-use servers. Do you disable recording of replays? I'm trying to think of things that would cause a server to skip a beat after about 5-10 minutes and flushing the RAM replay data to disc came to mind.
 
For rf1 we record replays yes.
For rf2 we disabled it because so far its only been fun events, so no idea how it would effect our server.

Is the issue displayed on the server replays as well? or just locally for drivers?
We have had some issues in this area as well on occasion and whilst we where not able to pinpoint it we thought it was track-related.
Somehow some tracks just don't work well on a server, giving issues like lag, packetloss etc. sometimes just not updating in the hud (you're 1st and suddenly you are 5th for a while and then it resets) or indeed cars just disappearing etc.

But never consistently on all tracks.

Could it be that some tracks are just not build efficiently enough? we had a member for example with a low end pc whom would remove objects from a track to make it work, animated choppers etc but he also said he would come across allot of hidden 3D objects underground which made no sense and had no use. like it was left overs that where forgotten by the creator.

Kinda like some tracks where a particular turn gives a high fps and the rest is cool. If that would be the case on say 80% of the track I can imagine with a full field, the server would get in trouble as well.
And its not just the server either, bad track, full field, and then also all the combined individual connections where the worst ones are becoming the culprit and increase the load on everything else.

Defo not the Unleashed mod though. some mods give issues as well but Unleashed is pretty server friendly.

Are you running rf2 at the same time though? if so, not so sure if that is something we would do, just to make sure. rf2 is demanding more then rf1 isn't it?
 
Denstjiro said:
Are you running rf2 at the same time though? if so, not so sure if that is something we would do, just to make sure. rf2 is demanding more then rf1 isn't it?
Click to expand...

No, nothing else running on the server. The only things launched are rF1's server. I do connect via Remote Desktop. Everything else is just regular Windows Server background tasks which I'm going to trust that wouldn't interfere with a normal priority thread.

Just as a reality check... a Core i3 with 8 GB RAM should run a rF1 race with 30 drivers easily right? I think I should be able to run 3 or 4 concurrent races on that hardware.
 
I also think that disabling of replays would help to improve overall performance. It may become too resource-intensive.
 
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